Journal of Adolescence 2002, 25, 6578 doi:10.1006/jado.2001.0449, available online at http://www.idealibrary.

com on

Occupational dreams, choices and aspirations: adolescents entrepreneurial prospects and orientations
EVA SCHMITT-RODERMUND
AND

FRED W. VONDRACEK

The present study examined possible early antecedents of entrepreneurship of 1417year-old 10th grade students (n=320). We hypothesized that Entrepreneurial Orientation (interest and self-efficacy), together with Willingness to Expend Effort, would be an important predictor of an adolescents Entrepreneurial Prospects, i.e. prospects of becoming self-employed in the future. Furthermore, personality and the model of self-employed family were expected to predict the level of Entrepreneurial Orientation. The same relationships were investigated separately for students who were more or less willing to expend effort. Among students more willing to expend effort, levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation were higher for those who were conscientious, self-efficient, open to new experiences, and low in agreeableness. Among students less willing to expend effort, a high need for social recognition predicted higher levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation. In addition, parents model for them was connected with lower levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation. A moderating effect of Willingness to Expend Effort was supported by the results for parents model and need for social recognition.
r 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

Introduction
One consequence of German unification has been an unprecedented increase in unemployment and worker dislocation, particularly in the formerly Communist eastern part of the country. In an effort to address this problem, German media, institutions, and the government have focused on promoting entrepreneurship1. A major impetus for the present focus on business start-ups has been the U.S. experience, where research finds that 80 per cent of all new jobs are the product of entrepreneurial ventures (Shane, 1996). This finding, coupled with the realization that entrepreneurship in Germany is not nearly as pervasive as it is in other countries, particularly in the U.S. has contributed to an agenda to promote new business ventures. In 1994, only 6?7 per cent of the work force in Germany was self-employed. Since 1994, this number has risen to 9?3 per cent. Current projections demonstrate an increasing trend, but the current percentage of self-employment is still considered to be too low (Deutsches r Wirtschaftsforschung, 2000). Although many other countries report somewhat Institut fu lower rates than the U.S. the evidence is clear: The creation of start-up companies through entrepreneurship is one of the best ways to produce new jobs and reduce unemployment. This link between unemployment and entrepreneurial activity has been impressively
1 In this study, the term entrepreneurship is used as a category for all kinds of self-employment, including small business ownership. Apart from the fact that most programs do not differentiate between training that is designed to promote small business ownership or true entrepreneurship, in the case of the present study, which deals with adolescents, it does not make sense to discuss entrepreneurial and small business start-ups separately. Furthermore, many variables relevant for entrepreneurship also have been defined as important for the success of small businesses and vice versa (Stewart, 1996).

0140-1971/02/$3500

# 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

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E. Schmitt-Rodermund and F.W. Vondracek

documented in a multinational study that demonstrated a direct, positive relationship genhold and Staber, between the rate of unemployment and the rate of entrepreneurship (Bo 1990). Efforts to stimulate entrepreneurship have included the provision of tax reductions for existing middle- and small-sized businesses (New York Times, 1999), the development of programs designed to increase general entrepreneurial motivation, and the provision of training and financial support for future entrepreneurs. School-based programs designed to stimulate entrepreneurial pursuits have generated a great deal of interest, although it is difficult to ascertain their effectiveness (TLZ, 1998; Deutsche Ausgleichsbank and Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Schule Wirtschaft, 1999). One likely reason for the variable outcomes reported for school-based training programs for entrepreneurs may be that there is relatively little research that has examined the relationship of adolescent personality, interests, skills, and ideas about future occupation to prospects for later entrepreneurial pursuits. Our research was aimed therefore, at exploring which adolescents would have the greatest entrepreneurship potential. Business start-ups usually require a great deal of planning and preparation. Two factors may represent the starting point of such a process. One is that the potential entrepreneur needs to have a general idea that he or she wants to become self-employed later in life. For example, biographical reports from company founders in the businesses community demonstrate that umler, 1995). adolescence was a time when their entrepreneurial aspirations took shape (Ba The second factor relevant as a starting point for self-employment is the right type of occupational training. This is particularly true in Germany, where bankers and investors view training and formal education as a critical factor in their decision to invest in an entrepreneurs products and business plan. Adolescents who are seriously interested in a career as an entrepreneur are likely to share both, plans for future self employment and career choices that allow for self-employment. This combination we refer to as Entrepreneurial Prospects. Entrepreneurial Prospects we deem likely to be predicted by a combination of characteristics including entrepreneurial interests (e.g. interest in activities related to an entrepreneurs work such as reading business journals), entrepreneurial skills (e.g. having skills related to an entrepreneurs work, such as salesmanship), and entrepreneurial traits (e.g. being a leader). This combination of entrepreneurial interests, skills, and traits may be conceptualized as an Entrepreneurial Orientation. Anecdotal accounts of numerous successful entrepreneurs underscore an additional point, namely that entrepreneurs must be willing to devote themselves to their entrepreneurial activities to the virtual exclusion of almost everything else. Along with having an Entrepreneurial Orientation, one has to consider an adolescents Willingness to Expend Effort in any attempt to predict an Entrepreneurial Prospect. Adolescents who are willing to work hard and who are curious about the world of work, independent of general intelligence or achievement in any given area, may be more likely to pursue an occupation that requires self-direction and independent learning. Thus, for adolescents who are moving from school to work we hypothesize (1): that having an Entrepreneurial Orientation and Willingness to Expend Effort will predict the extent of ones Entrepreneurial Prospects. Previous research suggested that personality factors play a role in entrepreneurship. Achievement orientation (McClelland, 1966; Brockhaus and Horwitz, 1986; Begley and Boyd, 1987; Chell, Haworth and Brearley, 1991), conscientiousness and low agreeableness

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(De Fruyt and Mervielde, 1997; Schmitt-Rodermund; Silbereisen, 1997), and low levels of harm avoidance (McClelland, 1966) predict entrepreneurial activity and success. Entrepreneurs have also been shown to be more risk taking, more internally controlled, and possessing higher levels of self-efficacy (Brockhaus and Horwitz, 1986; Begley and Boyd, 1987; Chell, Haworth and Brearley, 1991; Stewart, 1996). Such relationships were not only found for active entrepreneurs but also for individuals who planned for a business start-up tter, 1997; Mu ller, 2000). They were more creative and had a higher need for (Brandsta autonomy than others (Cromie, Callaghan and Jansen, 1992). Bonnett and Furnham (1991) even showed that adolescents who chose to attend a seminar on entrepreneurship to be more achievement oriented and more internally controlled than their counterparts who did not attend the seminar. Other research has demonstrated that personality characteristics (e.g. the Big Five (Costa and McCrae, 1985)) can directly predict entrepreneurial potential. De Fruyt and Mervielde (1997) showed that subjects identified as predominantly the entrepreneurial type (E-type) in terms of their vocational interests and personality (Holland, 1999) were more extraverted and more conscientious, but less agreeable and neurotic than others. Various studies have shown that persons who are identified as entrepreneurial within the Holland system are likely to be salespersons, managers, or entrepreneurs (Barrick and Mount, 1993; Tokar and Swanson, 1995). Many other studies have corroborated these findings (Costa, McCrae and Holland, 1984; Gottfredson, Jones and Holland, 1993). In addition to personality factors, parental models may provide the backdrop for an entrepreneurial orientation in adolescence. Parents have been found to act as career models that influence their childrens vocational interests and occupational choices (Schulenberg, Vondracek and Crouter, 1984). For example, individuals with a family background of selfemployment and entrepreneurship were much more likely to start their own businesses than were others (Ronstadt, 1984; Hisrich and Brush, 1986; Cromie, Callaghan and Jansen, 1992). The expectation that personality characteristics and parents model promote entrepreneurial interest and potential which, in turn, may contribute to the emergence of an entrepreneurial career, must be tempered by willingness to expend considerable effort. Even if students who are more willing to expend effort, as well as students who are less willing to expend effort related to their work were to show similar levels of entrepreneurial potential, we believe that this would be for different reasons. Adolescents, who are less willing to put serious effort into their activities but still indicate an entrepreneurial orientation, are likely to do this because they perceive it to be socially desirable. This should not be surprising because in recent years there has been widespread discussion in the Germany news media and in various school curricula about the desirability of founding new businesses in order to lower unemployment rates. Thus, students expression of interest in entrepreneurship may often be merely a reflection of what they believe to be cool. Adolescents who are more willing to put serious effort into their actions, in contrast, are expected to show high levels of an entrepreneurial orientation when they are characterized by personalities similar to those of active entrepreneurs. Thus, we expect the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and personality, and the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and parental modeling, respectively, to be moderated by a willingness to expend effort. We hypothesize that (2): adolescents who are more willing to expend effort will have greater Entrepreneurial Orientation if they are members of a self-employed family and present a personality profile similar to that of active entrepreneurs, i.e. high achievement orientation, conscientiousness,

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openness, extraversion, and low agreeableness and harm avoidance. Conversely, we expect that adolescents who are less willing to expend significant effort will report higher levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation if they have high levels of general self-efficacy and show a strong need for social acknowledgment. For these individuals, having a self-employed family background is expected to relate with lower levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation.

Method
Sample
In the summer of 1998, data was collected from 320 1417-year-old students, who were all in the 10th grade. They attended two different school tracks (college bound, non-college bound) in a mid-sized university town (population of 100,000). The students completed the questionnaires in their classrooms, with their teachers present, during a 60-minute period set aside for this purpose. University students were available to answer questions and provide assistance when necessary, and they collected the questionnaires after they were completed. Characteristics of the sample are shown separately for the two groups according to their level of willingness to expend effort (see Table 1).

Variables Entrepreneurial orientation. Three self-assessed behavioral variables: Entrepreneurial

Interest; Entrepreneurial Skills; and Entrepreneurial Behavioral Traits were combined to create a measure of Entrepreneurial Orientation. The item responses were fashioned into a Likert format (1=not true at all to 5=exactly true). The inter-correlations of the three constructs ranged from r=065 to 085. They were z-standardized and then combined into one single scale of entrepreneurial orientation) M = 0, S.D. = 270, Min = 663, Max =

Table 1

Characteristics of the sample

Willingness to expend effort Below median (n=159) Above median (n=161)
S.D.

Age No. of siblings Parental education* Gender (female) Non-college bound track Not german bornw Single parent household Already decided on a future career Self-employed family

M 1556 125 316 % 5280 4780 130 2700 6410 3630

(065) (100) (077) N (84) (76) (2) (43) (106) (57)

M 1545 120 323 % 5530 4040 250 2730 6600 4310

S.D.

(070) (075) (075) N (89) (65) (4) (44) (105) (69)

Note. None of the variables were significantly different for the two groups. *Average parental education. 1=10 years of schooling, 4=college degree or higher. wThis percentage equals the percentage of foreigners in the local population.

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672, a=083). The three component indices were: Entrepreneurial Interest. Eleven items similar to Hollands E-type questions (Holland, 1985) aimed at likes and dislikes of different entrepreneurial activities, such as selling something, reading a journal on business issues or learning about successful entrepreneurial strategies (I would like to. . . a=085, M=290, S.D.=084, Min=109, Max = 482). Entrepreneurial Skills. Another 11 items measured the self-reported performance in the same entrepreneurial activities (I am good at selling something, a=089, M=289, S.D.=083, Min=1, Max=491). Entrepreneurial Behavioral Traits. The last 13 items measured more general, trait-related entrepreneurial self-efficacy, e.g. I am a good leader, (a=090, M=296, S.D.=078, Min=108, Max=485).

Willingness to expend effort. Three different indicators were chosen to measure

willingness to expend effort. First, the adolescents were asked whether they were interested in taking optional classes in addition to their school schedules. Seven different classes were offered, ranging from photography to the stock exchange. Answers ranged from 3=yes, I will take this class, 2=I might take this class, not sure, to 1=no, I will not take this class (Max=19, Min=7, M=1266, S.D.=260). Second, five items were used to measure a participants curiosity for new topics. The students were asked to rate their curiosity on a five-point scale (5=true, 1=false, Max=25, Min=5, M=1596, S.D.=342, a=071), e.g., whether they would take the opportunity to learn new things if they had the chance. The third indicator was related to the adolescents future perspective. They were asked how many hours they expected to work weekly by the age of 40. Answers ranged between 20 and 90 hours (M=4536, S.D.=872). Cronbachs a for the three indicators was 041 and the correlations were moderate to low, although they were all significant, thus indicating that the three variables tapped into quite different aspects of willingness to expend effort (r=031 to r=009). The three vales were z-standardized and summed. Two groups were generated using the median split, resulting in one group whose members were more willing to expend effort and one group whose members were less willing to expend effort.

Entrepreneurial prospects. First, adolescents were asked whether they cold imagine
themselves ever being self-employed in the future. In the group of 320, 233 (728%) said that they could. Second, the adolescents were asked to write down their present career choice, or to check a box if they had not yet decided on a specific career. In addition, they were asked to indicate their expected occupational status by the age of 40. All three indicators, the idea of future self-employment, current career choice, and expected job status by age of 40 were used to place them into one of three categories reflecting the presence or absence of Entrepreneurial Prospects. The first category of the indicator was comprised of adolescents without Entrepreneurial Prospects (coded as 0, n=80, 254%). They could not imagine themselves being self-employed, they did not choose a career that typically permits selfemployment (e.g. administrative assistant, nurse, or bank employee), nor did they expect to be entrepreneurs by the age of 40. The second group was comprised of adolescents who responded in mixed fashion to the three items (coded as 1, n=184, 584%). The third group (coded as 2 n=51, 162%, M=091, S.D.=064) contained adolescents who responded positively to all three items, indicating that they had strong Entrepreneurial Prospects.

Achievement orientation, harm avoidance, need for social recognition. The

German version of the Jackson Personality Research Form (PRF, Stumpf et al., 1985) was used to assess achievement orientation, harm avoidance, and need for social recognition. In all three cases, adolescents answered 16 yes/no questions, with answers indicating the

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respective orientation counted to a sum score. Achievement orientation: I often set myself goals which are hard to achieve (+), I would rather be paid according to my output than the hours I spend working (+), M=868 (S.D.=271), Min=1, Max=15, a=059. Harm avoidance: Whenever I have the opportunity, I like to take risks (); I do not engage in some kinds of sports and hobbies because they are too dangerous (+), M=657, S.D.=303, Min=0, Max=16, a=068. Need for social recognition: When I do something, I often wonder what others think about it (+), I do not change my behavior, even if others do not appreciate what I do (), M=964, S.D.=319, Min=0, Max=16, a=073. Even though two of the Cronbachs a indicated a low internal consistency of the items, we chose to stick with the original scales to achieve comparability with other studies.

General self-efficacy. A 20-item scale (Schwarzer, 1986) was used to assess general selfefficacy, e.g. If something turns out to be too difficult, I usually give up (), Whatever happens, Im sure that I will find a way to cope with the situation (+). Answers could be given on a 5-point scale from 1=not true at all, to 5=exactly true (negative items recorded; M=337, S.D.=052, Min=180, Max=495, a=088).

Extroversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness. Four of the so-called

big-five personality traits were measured using a German version (Ostendorf, 1990) of the NEO-PI questionnaire (Costa and McCrae, 1985; Borkenau and Ostendorf, 1991). This questionnaire consists of 45 bipolar adjective pairs, 9 for each personality trait (neuroticism was not used for the purpose of the present study). Responses were cast into a six-point Likert scale, which was placed between the adjective pair so that the adolescents would check a box closer to one or the other end of the scale (e.g. talkative 1-2-3-4-5-6 quiet). The internal consistencies, means, and standard deviations were: Agreeableness: a=058, M=379, S.D.=056, Conscientiousness: a=075, M=405, S.D.=078, Extroversion: a=056, M=410, S.D.=078, Openness: a=075, M=424, S.D.=058.

Results
Adolescents who were more willing to expend effort and at the same time demonstrated more of an Entrepreneurial Orientation (i.e. high interest and entrepreneurial self-efficacy skills and traits) were expected to show better Entrepreneurial Prospects. To test for this expectation, we computed a regression analysis for the entire group with Entrepreneurial Orientation, Willingness to expend effort, and the interaction between the two predicting Entrepreneurial Prospects (all three variables entered as continuous variables). Gender, age, school track, and parental education served as control variables and were entered in the analyses first. Table 2 shows the results. In all, findings were significant, but this was mainly due to the effects of Willingness to Expend Effort and Entrepreneurial Orientation. The control variables did not significantly predict Entrepreneurial Prospects. The interaction term of Willingness and Orientation was not significant, thus indicating that both, Willingness and Orientation, had an independent contribution in the prediction of entrepreneurial career prospects. Next, we expected that certain personality and family factors would significantly predict, independent of control factors, Entrepreneurial Orientation differentially for those who were more or less willing to expend effort. Linear regression models were run separately for those above and below the median split on the Willingness to Expend Effort construct. The control

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Table 2

Prediction of entrepreneurial prospects: multiple regression analysis

Step b 0076 0023 0049 0020 0126 0016 0050 0066 0002 0376 0141 b 0078 0018 0038 0024 p

Age Male Higher School Track Parental Education R R2 Entrepreneurial orientation Willingness to expend effort* Orientation willingness R R2

II

0210 0207 0016

0001 0001

0000

*Continuous variable based on the standardized scores of the three indicator scales.

variables age, gender, parents education, and school track were included in each regression model. Predictor variables were personality traits (achievement orientation, harm avoidance, general self-efficacy, need for social recognition, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, and openness) and family self-employment. Table 3 shows the intercorrelations between all variables and Table 4 the results of the multiple regression analyses. The pattern of significant predictors differed by a participants willingness to expend effort. Only two common effects emerged across the effort groups. In both effort groups, males and those who exhibited more general self-efficacy reported a stronger Entrepreneurial Orientation. For adolescents less willing to expend effort, being a member of a self-employed family had the expected effect: they demonstrated a weaker Entrepreneurial Orientation. The same was true for boys and girls attending the lower school track (a school track that terminates with 10th grade). Among the personality characteristics, the need for social recognition turned out to have a significant effect on Entrepreneurial Orientation in this group. As expected, adolescents who were less willing to expend effort but at the same time had a high need for social affirmation, exhibited a stronger entrepreneurial orientation. Turning to those who were more willing to expend effort, students who took their work seriously (i.e. conscientiousness), who were not very friendly with others (i.e. agreeableness), who were creative and open to new experiences (i.e. openness), and who exhibited more selfefficacy, had a stronger Entrepreneurial Orientation. Achievement orientation, harm avoidance, and parental modeling, however, did not contribute significantly to the prediction of Entrepreneurial Orientation in this group In sum, we confirmed out main expectations concerning the different pattern of relationships between the predictors and the outcome for the high and low effort groups. To statistically test for the conclusion that Willingness to Expend Effort is a true moderating variable, we modeled a multiple linear regression analysis for the entire group (i.e. combining the effort groups). In addition to the independent variables from the previous analyses, Willingness to Expend Effort (continuous variable) and the interaction terms (willingness all independent variables) were included in order to test separately for interactions with Willingness to Expend Effort. Table 5 contains the results. One interaction term was significant (po05) and another demonstrated a trend (po010), thus indicating that Willingness to Expend Effort tends to moderate the

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Table 3

Intercorrelations between independent and dependent variables

1 2 0004 0035 0176 058 0126 0322 0187 0018 0025 0108 0083 0115 0133 3 0046 0040 0051 0129 0132 0026 0064 0006 0222 0007 0112 0032 0073 4 0102 0130 0122 0278 0051 0058 0223 0049 0191 0103 0067 0026 0085 5 0039 0006 0025 0221 0015 0054 0137 0049 0212 0145 0215 0000 0186 6 0009 0246 0016 0126 0089 0028 0130 0267 0065 0195 0101 0007 0140 7 0005 0087 0007 0108 0009 0061 0454 0064 0067 0297 0247 0084 0110 8 0063 0084 0012 0102 0108 0089 0429 0128 0074 0213 0234 0041 0196 9 0185 0108 0054 068 0127 0201 0162 0020 0349 0106 0226 0148 0224 10 0222 0095 0005 0109 0082 0113 0077 0130 0388 0161 0349 0135 0311 11 0122 0228 0140 0055 0066 0206 0243 0242 0022 0209 0143 0034 0166 12 0171 0200 0017 0137 0018 0109 0342 0281 0180 0355 0309 0072 0409 13 14 0069 0135 0195 0146 0062 0177 0011 0010 0062 0062 0079 0166 0044 0122 0126 0100 0249 0249 0028 0200

1 Age 2 Male 0122 3 Self-employed 035 family 4 Higher school 0290 track 5 Parental 0017 Education 6 Agreeableness 0011 7 Extroversion 0076 8 Openness 0012 9 Conscien0051 tiousness 10 Achievement 0115 orientation 11 Harm 0050 Avoidance 12 Self-efficacy 0157 13 Social 0023 Recognition 14 Entrepreneurial 0135 Orientation

E. Schmitt-Rodermund and F.W. Vondracek

0069 0189 0001 0100 0361 0200

Note: The upper half of the table contains the correlations for the group less willing to expend effort. The lower half contains correlation coefficients for the group more willing to expend effort. Significant coefficients ( p=005 and lower) appear in bold print.

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Table 4

Predictors of entrepreneurial orientation separately for two groups of students

Less willing to expend effort B b 0097 0201 0161 0194 0097 0105 0109 0110 0029 0139 0062 0209 0246 p 0012 0030 0?012 More willing to expend effort B 0285 0663 0166 0009 0275 0639 0043 0753 0503 0098 0029 0782 0076 0513 0263 b 0084 0141 0035 0002 0088 0158 0013 0176 0169 0099 0038 0166 0098 p 0092

Age Male Self-employed family Higher school track Parental education Agreeableness Extroversion Openness Conscientiousness Achievement orientation Harm avoidance Self-efficacy Need for social recognition R R2

0360 0974 0808 0937 0302 0458 0334 0461 0106 0130 0050 1?095 0178 0567 0321

0053 0044 0052 0057

0?017 0?001

0?000

0000

Table 5 The moderating effect of willingness to expend effort: multiple regression analysis with interaction terms predicting entrepreneurial orientation
B Age Male Self-employed family Higher school track Parental education Agreeableness Extroversion Openness Conscientiousness Achievement orientation Harm avoidance Self-efficacy Need for social recognition Willingness to expend effort* Willingness agreeableness Willingness extraversion Willingness openness Willingness conscientiousness Willingness achievement Willingness harm avoidance Willingness self efficacy Willingness social recognition Willingness self-empl. family R R2 0257 0846 0250 0462 0264 0499 0317 0451 0135 0099 0027 0884 0114 0440 0004 0156 0060 0010 0020 0002 0109 0033 0303 0662 0439 b 0065 0159 0046 0087 0076 0107 0093 0098 0039 0102 0031 0171 0138 0335 0013 0495 0196 0035 0144 0011 0289 0247 0371 p 0002 0080 0034 0097 0077 0086 0003 0004

0078 0022 0000

*Continuous variable based on the standardized scores of the three indicator scales.

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E. Schmitt-Rodermund and F.W. Vondracek

relationship between social recognition and Entrepreneurial Orientation and significantly moderates the relationship between familys self-employment (i.e. parental modeling) and Entrepreneurial Orientation.

Discussion
Programs to enhance entrepreneurial orientation, with the aim of encouraging more young people to start their own businesses, have received increasing attention (TLZ, 1998; Deutsche Ausgleichsbank and Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Schule Wirtschaft, 1999). Our study aimed at exploring and assessing the processes and factors that impact Entrepreneurial Prospects and Orientation in adolescence. These two factors were deemed important for both, the success of programs to foster entrepreneurship and future entrepreneurial activities. We started out with the assumption that mere Entrepreneurial Orientation would be insufficient for the actualization of Entrepreneurial Prospects. Specifically, we postulated that the Willingness to Expend Effort, i.e. the willingness to learn new things, to be curious, and to work hard in order to achieve ones goals would be equally important. Indeed, we found that those adolescents with a higher level of Entrepreneurial Orientation, who were also more willing to expend effort, were most likely to perceive significant Entrepreneurial Prospects, i.e., they confidently saw self-employment as an option for their future career, they reported that they expected to be self-employed by the age of 40, and that they had made preliminary career choices consistent with future self-employment. Our second expectation was related to the prediction of Entrepreneurial Orientation. We assumed Willingness to Expend Effort to act as a moderator for the relationship between personality variables, family self-employment, and Entrepreneurial Orientation. The moderating role of willingness was supported in the case of two of the independent variables, i.e. need for social recognition and family self-employment. We chose to interpret the pattern of the other variables, too, as they fitted the expectations nicely. Among those who were above the median in the Willingness to Expend Effort variable, high levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation were associated with high levels of conscientiousness, openness to new experiences, and low agreeableness. This personality profile is similar to that found for adult entrepreneurs. Schumpeter (1934), for example, stressed openness and creativity as the most prominent markers of the entrepreneurial personality. High achievement orientation has been associated with entrepreneurs in numerous studies (e.g. Brockhaus and Horwitz, 1986; Begley and Boyd, 1987; Chell, Haworth and Brearley, 1991; Stewart, 1996). In the present study, achievement orientation turned out not to be significant, although a close correlate, conscientiousness, was. The last characteristic, agreeableness, has not been studied extensively in entrepreneurs, with a few exceptions. Subjects high on the E-type (i.e. with entrepreneurial interests and behavioral traits; De Fruyt and Melvielde, 1996) and more successful entrepreneurs (Schmitt-Rodermund and Silbereisen, 1997) were found to be less agreeable. Thus, it may not be a big surprise to find that less socially oriented students feel attracted by entrepreneurship. In the group less willing to expend effort, social recognition was the most important predictor of Entrepreneurial Orientation among the personality variables. Adolescents, who were not very energetic about what they wanted to do, reported significant interest in entrepreneurial activities only if they had a high concern about what others would think or expect of them. In addition, being a member of a self-employed family turned out to predict

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lower levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation in this group. Having self-employment in the family seems to set a bad example for those not willing to expend effort. To watch ones hard-working parents in their grocery store makes it perfectly clear that being self-employed requires great effort and investment, which these students obviously were not willing to put forth. For the group of students who wanted to work hard and to expend the requisite level of effort, family self-employment did not make a difference for the level of Entrepreneurial Orientation. This finding is contrary to what has been found in the U.S. and in other English-speaking countries, where parental self-employment seems to facilitate offspring selfemployment (Ronstadt, 1984; Cromie, Callaghan and Jansen, 1992; Hisrich and Brush, 1996). Thus, it may be concluded that adolescents who are less willing to expend effort are more extrinsically motivated to display an Entrepreneurial Orientation, mainly through social desirability factors and a general tendency to brag about ones abilities. Adolescents who are more willing to expend serious effort in their activities seem to be more intrinsically motivated when they report higher levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation. Their personality profile, which is similar to that of adult entrepreneurs, underscores this point. Before discussing some of the results in more detail, a few caveats are in order. First, the present study was unable to include the eventual career choices of the adolescents, and thus could not definitively establish whether the boys and girls would be self-employed as adults or not. If we assume, however, that dreams and aspirations for future self-employment are likely precursors for becoming self-employed in adulthood, it makes sense to expect a higher share of those who have them to be found among future entrepreneurs. A second caveat is that we do not know whether the personality characteristics that are salient for entrepreneurship are stable. There is evidence, however, that peoples traits remain relatively stable over time (Alwin, 1994; Costa and McCrae, 1995). Thus, we can reasonably assume that the personality characteristics we identified as being relevant for entrepreneurship may also be found in the same people ten years later, when they may predict entrepreneurial activity rather than just Entrepreneurial Orientation. A third caveat concerns the causal quality of the relationship between parental modeling, personality, and Entrepreneurial Orientation. The underlying assumption was that parental modeling and personality both play a role in the development of Entrepreneurial Orientation. Clearly, this cannot be confirmed with the cross-sectional data employed in the present study. There is support in the research literature, however, for the view that personality traits are the driving force behind ller, 2000) rather entrepreneurial activities and interests (Bonnett and Furnham, 1991; Mu than the other way around, which would hold that entrepreneurial activities are the key to forming certain personality structures. A final caveat that needs to be mentioned is the relatively low alphas for some of the scales used in the present study. It may be that the young age of the respondents (15 years of age on average) in the present study caused them to experience some problems in comprehending the questions. The scales have been reported to have quite acceptable alphas in numerous other studies in which samples were comprised of older participants. We decided, nevertheless, to stick with the original selection of items in order to achieve comparability with other studies. In interpreting the results, however, the low alphas of some of the scales need to be kept in mind. There are two findings of the present research that warrant some further elaboration. First, it turned out that Entrepreneurial Orientation alone is only part of the information needed for the prediction of Entrepreneurial Prospects. Entrepreneurial Orientation and the Willingness to expend significant effort contribute individually to the actualization of

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Entrepreneurial prospects. Adolescents not sharing any Entrepreneurial Orientation and Willingness were the least likely to report Entrepreneurial prospects, and adolescents with both factors present were most likely to report Entrepreneurial prospects i.e., for them, a future business start-up becomes a serious possibility. The second set of findings very nicely underscores this point. Among adolescents who were willing to expend effort, those who had a personality profile similar to that of adult entrepreneurs were especially likely to report high levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation. Consequently, a careful selection of participants for training programs for entrepreneurship may boost the effects of such programs. Students with an entrepreneurial personality profile, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and greater Willingness to Expend Effort may be the best candidates to increase the number of future business start-ups. Another interesting finding is the effect of family self-employment. Other than in the U.S., where a parental model clearly helps to develop a persons ideas about self-employment, in Germany a family model seems to have an adverse effect, especially for youth less willing to expend effort. To some extent this might be due to the somewhat anti-entrepreneurial spirit in Germany, where engagement, especially in a small or middle-sized business, is seen as a lesser choice. Thus, such a spirit may contribute to the negative views toward entrepreneurship expressed by some of the adolescents of this sample, especially among those who know self-employed people first-hand from their family experience. Taken together, we might have to think about a new type of training program. Instead of giving mere information about how to get started with ones own business, it could be worthwhile to offer more basic programs which aim at the enhancement of knowledge about ones own interests and ones personality, on the one hand, and at the improvement of a general entrepreneurial spirit on the other. Career interests are formed at a very early point in adolescence. If the goal is to produce more entrepreneurs, it may be necessary to take a more proactive course of action, i.e. help adolescents to find out about themselves and about entrepreneurship as a career option, and in a second step provide special training for those who bring in the right combination of personality and Entrepreneurial Orientation.

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